We wanted to continue the conversation about keywording and segue into Search Engine Optimization best-practices for your website. The following are ten things “not” to do to ensure your website remains listed on any search index and most importantly, to ensure that people can find your work through the search engines.
1. Keyword Stuffing: If you use the same keyword repeatedly within your website’s text or in your keyword tags, you’ll find yourself penalized and likely removed from the search results index. How much repetition is too much? Use a keyword density checker to make sure that you’re not over the legal limit. Experts say 3-7% for your major keywords and 1-2% for your minor keywords. We touched on this in our last blog post about keywording, Licensing Fundamentals: Keywording for Search Results.
2. Duplicate Content: Duplicate content deliberately tries to trick search engines into improving a website’s ranking. Search Engines have built-in algorithms that analyze pages with similar content. How much similarity are they looking for? Use this duplicate content tool to see if you’re pages duplicate too much information. If so, the search engines may omit your web pages or site from the search index. A good place to read more on duplicate content is the Google Webmaster Central Blog. If you need to see a more visual presentation on the subject, check out the blog posted by SEOMOZ.org.
3. Free-For All Link Exchange Programs: There is a difference between natural link building and free-for-all link exchange programs. With natural link building, you’re linking to relevant sites or reciprocating links with partners or associations. Free-for-all linking occurs when you use software to put your links out to hundreds of thousands of sites. Free-for-all programs are essentially spam and if a search engine discovers this practice they will likely penalize your website and lower your ranking (if not blacklist you). Stay honest, start a link-building program by establishing reciprocal links with relevant, reputable websites. It really is that simple. If you’d like a good online resource to learn more about this, check out this blog by SEOMOZ.org on link building.
4. Robots: Do not use a robot to rewrite your content. Such robots alter it just enough to generate a set of new, duplicate pages for search engine indexing and with the ultimate goal of increasing your search engine ranking. You may be seduced by the offer of having your website rewritten for you. Don’t fall for it. Such robots, or programs, typically rewrite your content with very few changes. If you’re caught with duplicate content, your search ranking is likely to plummet so far that no one will ever find it. Needless to say, if you use the LicenseStream HTML code to publicize your store on your blog or personal website, don’t submit it for a robot to rewrite --not only will it affect search engine rankings for your personal website, but it could also affect rankings for your LicenseStream store.
5. Keyword Dilution: Focus on the main keywords that pay off for your online content. To get an idea of what keywords people are looking for, use the free service from Wordtracker. Plug in your keywords and see how many searches they have initiated. Focus the copy on your website and each page on a specific theme. This will naturally ensure your keywords are specific as to the types of content and images that someone can find at your website. You may want to refer to our previous LicenseStream Insight Blog post about keywording practices.
6. Difficult to Crawl Website: An all-Flash site is nice, but is difficult for the search engines to crawl and index. So if you’re going to use Flash to create a site, include an HTML option and an easily navigable site map. liveBooks is a great resource for putting together a fantastic Flash site for your work, and its Flash sites automatically generate an HTML version for SEO purposes. You can also link the Flash site you create with liveBooks directly to a LicenseStream account, so that visitors easily and seamlessly can license your work. With these services, you’ll have both the HTML needed for good SEO and the keywording and direct licensing features that can help your business succeed.
7. Hidden Text: Hidden text is computer text set in the same font color as the background so as not to be easily read by anyone viewing the page, but that a search engine will recognize. Usually it is used to camouflage keyword stuffing. If you think that it will generate a higher search result ranking, think again. If you are caught doing this, your pages will be removed and banned from participation in search engine rankings.
8. Bad Redirects: Don’t create pages with keywords with the sole purpose of getting a high search engine ranking only to redirect visitors to another page that is totally unrelated to the focus of a search. For example, say you do a search for “blue egrets” and you’re directed to a page that says, “One Moment While We Redirect You.” The next thing you know you’re on a page about candy bird eggs. This practice is unlikely to win you any fans and instead may result in the removal of your site from search engine indices. There are instances in which redirecting is appropriate. But the deliberate and malicious misuse of keywords is a practice that is likely to backfire.
9. Same Title on Every Page: Don’t use the same title on every page of your website. While you may think that by using the same words over and over again you’ll achieve a higher search engine ranking, think again. Instead, use titles relevant to the content on each page to increase the chance it’ll be found via a variety of search terms. For example, if your website is about birds in nature, don’t title every page: “Birds in Nature.” Instead, be specific. If you have three pages within a LicenseStream store website and one is dedicated to Blue Egrets, then name that page, “Birds in Nature: Blue Egrets.” Similarly, be specific in your captions or keywords.
10. Misspelled Words: Don’t use misspelled words anywhere other than in your META tags. Yes -- you may want to incorporate common misspellings of words, but keep them hidden in your META tags, not in your copy. Obviously incorporating misspelled words reduces your credibility, and such damage can’t be offset by any incremental gain in site ranking.
These are just a few tips to get started; there are many others and we’ll offer related tips in future posts. Optimizing your website for search engine ranking requires patience and diligent work. Our advice is to stay honest. Don’t try to game the system, it just isn’t worth it -- especially when your reputation and ranking of pages that represent your work are on the line.
